458 Scientific Intelligence. 



No. 250. The Petroleum Fields of the Pacific Coast of Alaska 

 with an account of the Bering River Coal Deposits ; by George 

 C. Martin. 64 pp., 7 plates, 3 figures. — The observations made 

 thus far are preliminary only, but they serve to show that at 

 several points on the Alaska coast, conspicuously near Controller 

 Bay, about 100 miles west of Mt. St. Elias, petroleum occurs in 

 some quantity, and the region may prove to be an important 

 source in the future ; explorations thus far made are, however, 

 inconclusive. The best coal thus far found on the Pacific coast 

 is that of Bering river which flows into Controller Bay. Petro- 

 leum fields have also been somewhat developed on the western 

 shore .of Cook Inlet and on Cold Bay opposite Kodiak Island. 



No. 252. Preliminary Report on the Geology and Water 

 Resources of Central Oregon; by Israel C. Russell. 138 pp. 

 24 plates, 4 figures. — This bulletin gives, as the result of a rapid 

 reconnoisance, an interesting and well illustrated account of a 

 little known region in central and eastern Oregon. It includes 

 the extreme northern part of the Great Basin, which has no 

 external outflow, and also a part of the drainage area of the 

 Deschutes and Crooked rivers. Much of it is an arid region, 

 conspicuously the " Great Sandy Desert," which has a length of 

 150 and a width of 30 to 50 miles. Of the hills or mountains of 

 the region, much the greater number owe their origin to volcanic 

 eruptions, the cones being particularly abundant to the west in 

 the neighborhood of the Cascade Mountains. The volcanic rocks 

 are mainly rhyolites, andesites and basalts, the last named 

 being in general the latest, though certain andesites and andesitic 

 tuffs are the youngest of all the lava outflows. In the west- 

 central part of the state an extensive shell of pumice, similar to 

 that about Crater lake described by Diller, forms a thick mantle 

 over the surface. The sedimentary formations consist of soft, or 

 partially consolidated beds, of Tertiary age. Interesting observa- 

 tions, with excellent views, are given of the present glaciers, par- 

 ticularly on the three peaks of the Cascade Mountains known as 

 the Three Sisters. In regard to the extent of former glaciation 

 the writer states "that during a former period, which can be 

 safely correlated with the Glacial epoch, great snow fields covered 

 the summit portion of the Cascade Mountains throughout their 

 entire extent across Oregon, and from this neve region large 

 alpine glaciers flowed eastward down the mountains. Glaciers 

 also occurred on the west side of the range, but no new facts 

 concerning them can be presented at this time. The conditions 

 were of the same general character as existed on the Cascade 

 Mountains in Washington, but the eastward-flowing ice streams 

 were seemingly less extensive. An instructive suggestion in 

 reference to the glaciers on the east side of the Cascade Moun- 

 tains in Oregon is furnished by the fact that in the southern por- 

 tion of the state, in the vicinity of Mounts Scott and Mazama, 

 the eastward-flowing glaciers are larger and of greater length 

 than farther north in the vicinity of the Three Sisters peaks and 



